


Angels are Nightmare Fuel

by starryeyedcas, Themostqueer



Category: South Park
Genre: Aged Up, Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Apocalypse, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Zombie Apocalypse, Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, Angels, Bible Accurate Angels, Collaboration, Crack Treated Seriously, Drug Use, Drug Withdrawal, Jealous Craig Tucker, Kind of inspired by The Bird Box, M/M, More or less one sided twenny, Other, Rapture AU, Slow Burn, Slow Romance, The Rapture, Withdrawal, Worked together with a very amazing and lovely lady/person!, trigger warning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-15 12:27:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29314068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starryeyedcas/pseuds/starryeyedcas, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Themostqueer/pseuds/Themostqueer
Summary: Tweek Tweak has never been taken seriously. People tended to listen to him when he was younger, but as he grew up, they stopped thinking that his horrible behavior and ideas were cute. He became the boy who cried wolf. On one lonesome sleepless night Tweek found himself stumbling across something that threatened the entire existence of humanity. But when he tells everyone he knows about the impending doom, only one person listens to him. Well, only one until it actually happens.TW: Drug Use/Withdrawal (depicted to the best of our abilities) and Violence/Slight GoreUpdated weekly!
Relationships: Clyde Donovan/Kenny McCormick, Craig Tucker/Tweek Tweak, Kenny McCormick & Tweek Tweak, Kenny McCormick/Tweek Tweak One Sided
Comments: 43
Kudos: 38





	1. It All Began on Reddit

It was a typical night for Tweek when he heard the news. The usual bout came over him as he tried to fall asleep. When the time on his alarm clock read 2 in the morning, he knew that rest was futile. Many people have told him before that if he wanted to sleep, he should relax and count sheep; but counting sheep was pretty hard when your mind couldn’t stay quiet. The volume and urgency of his thoughts were what always kept Tweek up at night, whether they were actively coming up with conspiracy theories or just worrying about an upcoming test, they were too loud and prominent for Tweek to ignore. 

So, in his helplessness and fatigue, Tweek reaches for his phone. He scrolls through his usual social media, finding anything to help him relax. He’s just about to scroll through the r/relaxingvideos subreddit when something quite alarming catches his eye. 

It’s a video taken from somewhere high up showing hundreds of people running, no, sprinting away from something. Tweek can’t quite make out what it is but it makes his heartbeat quicken, the usual feeling of sheer panic leaking its way into his chest. The headline of the video is in a language that Tweek didn’t know. As he presses the translate button his heart drops to his stomach and he suddenly feels very nauseous. 

Poland Under Attack! Dozens killed, Attackers at Large! 

Any hope that Tweek had about getting any sleep tonight vanished into thin air. Oh God, oh God! He sits up in his bed and swings his legs over the mattress, feet hitting the carpet. He makes his way to his computer, turning it on and tapping impatiently on the keyboard. 

The idea of rest in relaxation had become a distant memory, his now preoccupied mind twisting at the idea of… of whatever was attacking Poland! What could it possibly be, and was this just secured to just that one country? Tweek immediately searched up CNN, looking to see if there had been any new articles of this catastrophic event. Apparently not, because as much as he scrolled through, he couldn’t find anything about this sudden attack. 

This made sense, CNN updated daily, not hourly, so there was a high chance that there would be something about it in the morning. Er, well, later morning, perhaps midday at the latest. It seemed that average news didn’t cover this certain event, or at least not yet with its very recent appearance. But then how did that person on Reddit have that video?

Tweek pulled out his phone and went back to the alarming video, this time clicking on the username of the person who had posted it. Everything was in polish, but thanks to the translate button, everything was manageable. The translation wasn’t always perfect but it got the job done. It seemed that the certain person hadn’t posted again after that, the fleeing crowds being the last thing on the page.

He gritted his teeth together, wondering what the fuck could have possibly happened while his contry had been asleep. The beach blond rewatched the video again and again, trying to see if there were any landmarks or objects that could tell him where exactly this attack was going on. Nothing but building with blurred signs, closed shops, and the dancing shadow of what had scared everyone.

Even just listening to the recording and trying to pinpoint one voice to see what everyone was screaming about didn’t work. Plus, everything was in polish and it didn’t even matter if he could single just one sound out! Tweek shook his head physically, starting to chew eagerly on his thumbnail, falling into a sort of trance.

What a shitty time to get sleepy and tired! God, couldn’t he just catch a break!? The beach blond hopped up and ran downstairs, deciding that what he was doing was more important than the minor inconvenience of the family coffee shop, unplugging the machine and taking the whole fucking thing with him back upstairs. He grabbed two containers of coffee grounds from the cupboard, even though that stuff was specifically for customers. Screw it, consider it pay back for drugging him all his childhood with the same freaking coffee he was stealing.

He set the machine up next to his laptop, plugging everything in and pouring a more than healthy dose of coffee grounds into the top, and turning the thing on, waiting a few minutes for the coffee to get made. After what seemed like an eternity and almost falling asleep at his desk twice, the beach blond finally got that magical liquid that made everything a little easier to process.

Tweek took a minute or two, wondering what next steps he needed to take to find out what the actual fuck was going on. He came across the idea of finding other polish media, or polish media users that just happened to post something about this attack. So he did a little digging, going back to that same Reddit user and using that lead to find other polish posts and therefore other polish users.

Sadly, nothing else new popped up. Tweek was blessed with one more photo, still blurred, still taken in a hurry, and nothing since, but anything he could research was useful. The photo seemed to take place in the streets because he could see what he assumed to be snow next to what he assumed to be asphalt. Besides from that he couldn’t tell any more of the landscape besides from maybe a window or the shine of a car door. 

Though he couldn’t know where this exact photo was taken or even when, there was one thing he couldn’t get out of his mind. A tall looming shadow, oddly shaped and thin. If it wasn’t a picture maybe it would dance across the screen, but it couldn’t and wouldn’t. The tall stature, the strange proportions, and just the overall vibe that the photo was giving made one thing clear, whatever owned that shadow, caused all the destruction in Poland.

All through the night Tweek used one polish post to hop to another, downloading and printing out photos, taking screenshots of small articles on Twitter and Instagram from people in the attack. Once the wordy things had been printed out, he scribbled down a rough translation in blue ink, making the whole paper a bit messier and also easier to understand. Well, for an English speaker that is.

When the sun began to rise and coat the sky in a lighter blue, Tweek had been up for over four hours after hearing about the attack in Poland. Dark circles had started to form under his blueish green eyes, making him look much more tired than he felt. On the inside, there was nothing but pure panic bubbling up inside of him, threatening to overflow from his head and spill out of his mouth.

It wasn’t until his alarm went off did he realize what time it was, time to unfortunately go to school. Seven and a half hours of research time, useless, unable to be used for anything besides learning stupid vocabulary for something he would immediately forget the next day! Wait, no, he could use this time for something else, he could warn everyone of the imposing threat, something that would eventually pay off in the end! Perfect! All he needed was proof and he could conviv everyone, they could prepare if that thing ever got close to them!

The beach blond twitched and quickly got ready, snatching his backpack and shoving the appropriate papers into the bag. He grabbed his laptop and chargers just in case he would have to use the history to find said pieces of evidence again. He didn’t bother to attempt to wash up, not brush his hair or his teeth, just jumping from an all nighter to school with barely any transition between the two. He looked like he had just gotten out of bed just to fight a cat then didn’t bother to clean up afterwards.

Tweek found himself getting to class rather early so only a few people had arrived at that time of morning. He had to find someone he knew to talk to about all of this, someone he could trust, someone who would take him seriously! There had to be someone who wouldn’t immediately dismiss his claims, even if that person wasn’t necessarily his friend. Then boom, it was almost as if Tweek had hit the jackpot.

Craig, Craig was here! The ravennette had always gotten up early, he was calm and logical, precise, he would definitely listen to Tweek! Once all of the facts were shoved in the other’s face, there was no way that he could dismiss all of these terrifying facts, posts, pictures! If he didn’t believe Tweek right away, Craig was the type to listen and think things out! Sure, he hadn’t talked to his childhood friend in a while, sense the eight grade maybe they had their last real talk, but he couldn’t have changed that much!

The beach blond reached his locker, looking around to see if Craig was anywhere nearby. What? Did you think that he was going to put his backpack in his locker? His evidence tucked away? Never!

Finally, after two minutes of wandering around, Tweek caught what looked to be a familiar blue Chello hat, with that signature yellow poof ball on top. Praise the heavens Craig was so boring he never changed his outfit! The beach blond practically sprinted down the hall to the ravennette, narrowly avoiding his fate of running smack dab into the other.

“Craig!” He shrieked loudly, eyes wide, hair poking in all directions, looking like he just crawled out of a hole. “C-Craig, I-I need to tell you s-s-something!” Tweek gasped, pulling his backpack off and unzipping it, pulling out papers and notes, even a map. Tweek’s stuttering had gone way, way down since primary school, but it still managed to pop up every once in a while when he freaked out.

The ravennette winced at Tweek’s tone, wondering how someone’s voice could go that high and also be that loud. Yes he remembered Tweek, they were technically in the same friend group, but after the fake break up in front of the whole town, things just got awkward and they stopped talking. Still hung out sometimes, but never alone anymore, just with the other guys, usually playing video games.

“What?” Craig groaned to himself, wondering what could cause such alarm.

Tweek took a deep breath, counting to ten in his head before putting his words together. “I h-have reason to b-b-believe that there are m-m-monsters, o-o-o-or maybe an alien invasion or s-something!” He stuttered out, grabbing a few papers, printed out photos, said map, and screenshots of poorly translated tweets. “Craig, l-l-look at this! Last n-night I saw a v-v-video about how Poland is u-under attack! No m-more information after th-th-that, just being attacked!”

“Last night?” Craig questioned, raising a brow. That explained it, he was sleep deprived, no wonder he was acting like someone hit him on the head with a metal bat. “Look, Tweek, be logical about this. If there was an alien invasion or whatever, don’t you think that there would be news articles about it? That the USA wouldn’t deploy military troops, that there wouldn't be conspiracy nuts like you wearing tinfoil hats and cardboard shirts preaching the end of all times?”

The look on Tweek’s face dropped, he looked absolutely defeated. He had proof, real life proof! “B-b-but—!” He gritted his teeth together, literally shoving the papers into Craig’s face, as if it would somehow convince him otherwise. “It j-j-just happened at t-two AM last night! O-of course the word h-h-hasn’t gotten out yet, it would cause utter chaos!” He tried to explain away why this really was a threat.

“Two AM? Jesus Christ! Where did you find this conspiracy?” Craig crossed his arms, looking as sceptical as he’s always been.

“Nngh, I didn’t f-f-find it, I put it together! And it’s not a c-c-conspiracy! On Reddit!”

The ravennette let out a long sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose and shaking his head. Really, he knew Tweek was gullible, but so gullible that he’d immediately believe and then start a fucking conspiracy about one post he saw on Reddit at two in the fucking morning. It was the eighth wonder of the world how he hadn’t completely dropped the blond.

Craig patted Tweek on the shoulder, giving him a pitiful look and nod. “Tweek, is everything going okay at home? Your parents are treating you good? You cut down on the drugs, right?” The beach blond’s eyes went wide at the accusations against him, and just how crazy they were! Did Craig think his parents were abusing him or even that he was doing drugs to find out the truth about an incident in Poland?

“Nngh, if you w-won’t take m-my word for it, I’ll find the video again, granted you c-can’t see wh-wh-what everyone is fleeing from…”

“How convenient.”

“Gah! I’ll show you Craig! B-but when I sh-sh-show it to you, you better apologize for doubting m-me!” The blonde spat, dropping everything and getting his phone out faster than you can say “who turned out the lights?” Tweek opened the Reddit app immediately and searched r/Poland, starting to scroll down through the multiple posts.

Huh, that was weird, the video was nowhere to be seen, like it had just vanished. The further he went down, the more he was starting notice that he was coming across older videos. What happened to that fucking video! Tweek started to twitch, going back to the top to see if he had missed anything, but nothing stood out to him… 

At this point Craig had crossed his arms, tapping his foot impatiently, waiting for this video that would prove Tweek right. “Ack, s-someone must have deleted it, like th-th-the government! Yeah, they don’t w-want the truth to get out, th-that must be it! It’s a cover up!” The blond pleaded, looking almost desperate. “I’m not crazy!”

“See Tweek, you say you’re not crazy, but it’s a nice Tuesday morning, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and here you are talking about how aliens are invading because you saw a deleted video on Reddit at two AM. Oh, and it’s Polish. So if you excuse me, I have a feeling you are wasting my time and yours. I have a class to get to and so do you.”

And with that, Craig opened up his locker, getting all of his things for the first class of the day. Tweek fumbled for his backpack, looking for that one photo of the silhouette of what he assumed had probably murdered hundreds. Finally he found it, just in time before Craig pulled away. The beach blond held up the picture, red ink outlining what he thought was the full form of the creature. “L-look!”

Craig took one look at the blurry photo and scoffed. “Tweek that is a blurry picture of what could possibly just be a bunch of windchimes, there isn’t any head to that thing either! Nothing living could have its head separated from its body! It’s just science, you might as well tell me that the moon is a hologram or that the Loch Ness monster is real!” He spat, now clearly annoyed.

Tweek flinched at Craig’s tone of voice, slowly lowering the picture and neatly tucking it back into his backpack. So maybe he was wrong to think that Craig was a good first person to go to when dealing with something possibly supernatural. He huffed and turned away, feelings admittedly a little bit hurt that he had been put down so quickly by a so-called friend. But no matter, he’d go to someone else. And if they didn’t believe him, then another and another and another until someone saw how smart he was being.

The rest of the day he went around to everyone in the friend group, not yet fully convincing anyone that there were monsters among men. Well, not until he got to Kenny McCormick, even though he was basically just a bid for someone, anyone, to believe what he was saying. As it turned out, the ash blond was a diamond in the rough, and listened to what he had to say.

Once he found that the other male would hear him out, he pulled out every piece of paper he had in his backpack and it explained it all. It was a relief to find someone who didn’t think he had lost his marbles, it was so refreshing… he was almost having fun explaining every bit of evidence he had, and under normal circumstances he totally would have! But, you know, possible alien invasion so…

“... and so that’s why I think that it might be spreading from not just Poland but to some parts of Germany a-a-and Lithuania!” Tweek said, pointing to circled parts of the map with pins and notes plastered on it, it was very thorough, but also very messy.

Kenny looked over the map and took it from the other blond’s hands, examining the map with great care, knowing just how important this was to Tweek. To Kenny it didn’t matter if he was drugging out or if this was some strange cry for help, Tweek had to be taken seriously to ever get better. And that was assuming that he was actually in danger, but that was probably unlikely knowing that Tweek could never let himself get hurt. Call it cowardice, call it survival skills, either way it worked for him.

“Hmm, you make a pretty good point.” Kenny said through a muffling parka hood, handing the map back to its original owner. “But do you think it’s aliens? If it were aliens why would we see people getting killed? I mean, if anything why come to a plant with life just to kill what makes it special? I think you have an argument here, but maybe you have to reassess your culprit. Ever heard of the nine tailed fox? If any monster is real and could cause this much panic, maybe that would be it. They are supposed to be tricksters you know.”

Wait, was Kenny actually giving him advice…? Tweek was shocked at the reaction, eyes wide and jaw dropped. Slowly but surely, he began to break out in a smile. 

“Oh, the Kitsune…? Y-yeah, but all they do is mess with h-humans, not violently kill h-hundreds of them…” Tweek mumbled, pulling out his phone and looking up the Kitsune to see if the criteria of whatever could be rampaging matches. Just doing a quick google search, he didn’t think so, but it was still a possibility based off of the lack of evidence.

“Maybe… It says here th-that they’re supposed to be really strong in their fox form and create lighting and fire when they rub their tails together, but in the video I saw there wasn’t s-sparks, lighting, or fire, nothing like that. Plus I don’t think a n-nine tailed fox would drive away e-everyone in hordes. There was an eight legged lamb once!”

Kenny laughed at this, “Dude, how do you know that? Where do you go around looking for eight-legged lambs, that’s a little creepy not gonna lie.” He laughed again, not able to help himself.

Kenny had always enjoyed Tweek’s antics, how he could dig into the depths of anything he was given and then created a hypothesis out of thin air. It had disappointed him when he found out that Tweek left his friend group after Kenny came back, when they were in the fourth grade. 

“It w-was in a Chernobyl documentary,” the smaller blond stuttered out, but not necessarily out of stress or fear, but rather just out of habit. This was… this was fun. It was like he was having a real conversation with someone else, not preaching to the choir or trying to convince a dog to go vegan.

“Go figure.”

Tweek smiled softly, turning off his phone and pocketing it. He thought that Kenny was a pleasant person to be around, and it turns out that he was right. “How did you know about the Kitsune…? I mean, I d-don’t think it’s super well known in America, much less Colorado.” He said softly, scratching the back of his neck.

The boy in orange just shrugged, trying to remember just how he got into monsters, finally remembering. “Well, once I found a book on Greek mythology in the trash and because it was in good condition, I started reading it. Turns out, I really like mythology so I went to the public library and got more books on myth, and then the supernatural. I’m really into it, but no one ever asks so I never bring it up.” He explained. Tweek smiled at this. Maybe they should be friends.

“K-Kenny, would you like to help me build a bunker in my basement tomorrow?”


	2. Really Cool Stuff

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is it, the beginning of the end!

“You know, for someone who just found out about the world ending, you’re pretty prepared.” Kenny stood in the middle of Tweek’s basement, hands set on his hips and eyes wide with amusement. Tweek moved around the cluttered basement with ease, gathering things as he went. The basement was like any other that Kenny’s been in, dusty and hardly lived in, but it was stacked with what Kenny could only describe as “Doomsday Equipment”. Canned food, toilet paper, first aid kits, the whole shebang. It was quite impressive, actually. 

“B-better to be safe than sorry,” Tweek responds, “gotta be prepared for everything.” 

“Did you just buy all this?” Kenny asks. 

“No, it’s stuff I’ve collected overtime,” the smaller blond explains. There’s a small fold up table sitting in the middle of the room, Tweek begins placing his various gathered items on it. “So, we need to buy more supplies, I’m not sure how long we’ll need to stay hidden for-” Kenny throws his arms up. 

“Woah, woah, woah. Hold on a minute. First of all, I can’t buy anything- I’m kind of, uh, well, poor,” he says. “Second of all, is it just going to be us? This sounds pretty major, man. Can you imagine if it’s just the two of us down here for God knows how long?” Something about the question makes heat rush to Kenny’s face but he tries to ignore it, “I-I mean, I for one don’t want to see all of my friends die…” 

Tweek pauses for a moment, staring at Kenny with thinking eyes before he finally nods. “No, you have a point. But I’ve tried to talk to people about it, they won’t listen to me. They don’t believe me.” 

“Hey, hey,” Kenny says, walking over to Tweek and throwing an arm around his shoulder, “no worries. Those guys are idiots, and who here speaks fluent idiot? I do. I got your back.” 

“Urgh, okay…” Tweek concedes, shifting uncomfortably in Kenny’s grip, “I’m counting on you.” 

Kenny smiles devilishly, “Just leave the persuading to me.” 

___________________________

Cartman, Stan and Kyle are all waiting by the usual bus stop the next morning, Kenny joins them and they all look over. 

“Hey Kenny,” Stan and Kyle say in unison. 

“Dude, where the fuck were you yesterday, Kenny?” Cartman greets him. “You were supposed to meet us at Kyle’s last night and bring the stuff.” 

“Something else came up,” Kenny shrugs, the guys roll their eyes and decide they weren’t going to question it. Well, everyone except for Cartman. 

“Oh really? I heard from Butters, who heard from Wendy, who heard from Nichole, who heard from Token, who heard from Craig that you went over to Tweek’s yesterday.” Cartman walked toward Kenny, his face suddenly too close for comfort. Kenny didn’t flinch though and just continued to look at Cartman with a playful smile. 

“So what if I did go over to Tweek’s yesterday?” Kenny asks, “Did Eric Cartman, the Eric Cartman, miss lil ol’ me?” Kyle and Stan start giggling. 

“You son of a bitch, it’s not like that-” 

“Don’t get your panties in a twist, Eric, I was just kidding,” Kenny rolls his eyes while Kyle and Stan are both laughing in the background. “I went to Tweek’s yesterday because we know something you guys don’t.” Everyone is suddenly quiet. This time it’s Eric’s turn to laugh. 

“Oh, you mean that nonsense that Tweek was talking about yesterday?” Kyle suddenly chimes in. “Dude, that was all bullshit. There’s no way any of that-” 

“Hold on, you misunderstand me,” Kenny interrupts suddenly. He knows what he’s about to do isn’t technically ethical but there’s no time for moral highgrounds when the literal apocalypse is just around the corner. “What if I told you guys that Tweek has a foolproof plan to get us all out of school and still pass our classes?” 

Kyle, Stan and Cartman all stare at Kenny, dumbfounded expressions on each of their faces. The boys look back and forth between each other before staring at the tall blond again. Stan clears his throat, “You actually expect us to believe that?” 

“Yeah, since when has Tweek ever been able to come up with something like that? The dude can barely brush his own hair,” Cartman comments, making the other two boys laugh. Kenny frowns. 

“Fine,” he says, shoving his hands into the pockets of his parka. “Keep going to school then. Leave up to you guys to ignore the opportunity of a lifetime. Looks like Tweek and I will just have to do all that really cool stuff by ourselves.” 

A silence passes over the group, then Kyle speaks up. 

“...Really cool stuff?” 

Kenny smiles. “Really cool stuff.” The other three boys all stare at eachother, as if in some silent conversation amongst themselves. I think I got ‘em, Kenny thinks. It’s when Cartman’s eyebrows furrow and he stares at the ground that Kenny knows he’s won. 

“Fine, asshole, when can we meet up?” 

___________________

Kyle, Cartman, and Stan are in ;)

The text from Kenny comes in just as Tweek has finished setting up his basement. That looks much better, he thinks. The place is still cluttered but it’s a good kind of clutter. He was able to build makeshift shelves and stack a variety of supplies on them. The food was organized by expiration date, he had some canned food that would last them for years and he made sure to keep those in the back. In the corner of the basement is where he kept all of the toilet paper which, at the moment, sat in a sad little pile of three packages. Note to self: more toilet paper. 

Tweek wasn’t sure how Kenny managed to convince the other boys. The most he had ever gotten out of them was a laugh and a few namecalls. But then again, Kenny was more charming and could phrase things better than Tweek ever could. So, he figured he should give the taller blonde some credit. The fact that Kenny even believed what Tweek had to say at all meant everything. 

But even still, that’s only five people in the entirety of South Park that will be staying in Tweek’s bunker. It’s not enough. People are going to die and we’ll be the only ones left. Tweek thought back to what he saw, thought of all the deaths and the chaos that ensued while the people of South Park slept peacefully. One thing was for sure and it was that they needed to know, he had to warn them somehow. 

Suddenly feeling very determined, Tweek made his way out of the basement and upstairs to his room. He cleared at space on his desk, grabbing some papers and markers, and began to draw. At least with this, I can say I tried. Maybe it would also keep the guilt at bay whenever shit does hit the fan. 

_____________________

It’s a morning like any other as Craig leaves his house to go to school. The wind has a bite to it, making it chillier than usual but nothing the noirette couldn’t handle. His walk to school wasn’t very long and he was sure that his normal jacket would suffice. He walked past the same houses that he would every day, the same street lamps and telephone poles. It’s only after passing by a few of them that Craig realizes there is something posted on them. 

Usually people would post ads on these structures or missing posters. But now, as Craig looked at the crudely drawn poster, he realized this wasn’t the case. The end is near! Was written in giant bold letters and Craig could practically feel his eyes rolling into the back of his head. There was a lot of “information” crammed onto the poster, most of which Craig heard from Tweek. That’s when he spotted Tweek’s address listed on the bottom.

What was that crazy tweaker doing now? Was he really so drugged out that he was having hallucinations about his stupid coinspiricy theories? Jesus Christ, someone should send that poor boy to a psychologist, maybe even an insane asylum if this got too out of control. Maybe he should take the poster. You know, just in case someone else sees it. Craig reached out and tore the paper from the post, glancing over the scribbles and trying to make out what the damn thing said.

Tweek had written a lot more than what he had been told the other day, but kept a few key points in. Possible monster, blah blah blah, if you come across consider throwing salt at it, blah blah blah, if in need come to the address below for shelter, max capacity ten people. So not only was the blond giving out his fucking address, but he was also letting nine people stay in his freaking basement? God,Tweek was worse off than Craig originally expected…

The school was just coming into view as Craig shoved the piece of paper into his pocket. He walked to his locker, grabbing the items he needed for his class when he noticed something… off. It seemed quieter today for some reason. He twisted himself, looking out amongst the other students. He saw Clyde and Token near their lockers, Jimmy was over by Timmy, so his friends were there. But he still couldn’t shake the strange feeling that was inching its way into his gut. 

It’s probably nothing. 

Craig made his way to class, getting through the door as the bell rang. He sat in his usual seat, up in the front, and settled himself, pulling out his notebook. It’s then when he noticed that Tweek wasn’t there. Tch, Craig things, figures. But the class was still in a strange state of hushed silence, the kind of silence to make your skin crawl. 

“Okay, class,” the teacher began taking out a clipboard, “seems we have a lot of absences today.” The teacher sat on the edge of their desk, crossing one leg over the other. “So no Eric, Stan, or Kyle today?” No one responds. “Kenny? Tweek?” Dead silence. “Hmm, must be the flu or something. Anyways, today-” 

You’ve got to be kidding me. Craig twists in his chair, looking at Clyde who is sitting near one of the windows across the room. The brunette was curled over his desk, writing intensely on a small piece of paper, clearly meant to be a note. Craig rolls his eyes at how obvious the other boy looks and glances at the teacher who has their back turned. 

When he turns back the note is already hopping across desks, being handed off from one person to the next, until it reaches Craig’s desk. He almost snorts when he sees Clyde’s sloppy cursive handwriting on the top, signed: to Craig <3\. 

Do you think this is about all that stuff Tweek was saying yesterday? -Clyde <3

Craig flips the note over, scribbling: Probably, so dumb. And knock it off with the hearts, dude. People are going to think we’re gay. He folds it and passes it back, just managing to miss the teacher turning back around. 

“I was emailed earlier today to ask you guys if you know what to do in the event of an emergency situation,” the teacher begins, “so, does anyone know?” 

As people around him start to raise their hands, the same note lands back on Craig’s desk. He takes it and unfolds it in his lap, making sure the teacher isn’t looking at him. 

Aren’t you tho? 

Craig crumbles the note in his hand and holds back a smile. Dick. Around him, classmates were all chiming in to answer the teacher’s question. Craig hardly listened to their answers, opting instead to stare off into space. However after a few of the students answered the question, the teacher spoke up, pulling Craig out of La-La land and right back to Earth.

“It’s good to know you kids know the normal procedures for everything, but in the upcoming few days we’ll be showing each class a new scenario we need to prepare for.” They trailed off and turned to the board, grabbing a dry erase marker and writing a few things down.

The ravennette perked up, glancing at the board with a new found interest. New scenario? Just a day after Tweek proposed his crackhead theory? No, Tweek wasn’t right, he couldn’t be right, this was all just one big coincidence that could be explained away with logic and science. The teacher pulled down a screen and turned the lights off, signaling that he was going to put something up on the board. 

Soon a video started to play. Craig glanced up at the URL just to see that it was a surprisingly reliable source, CNN. He could feel his brows touch, he was so confused. As the video started to play, Craig couldn’t help but lean in with the attention and focus of a hawk. What the fuck? He thought to himself as footage started rolling on the screen.

What he was seeing was what Tweek had been describing to him just the other day, tens of hundreds of people running away, screaming in a language he didn’t understand. Soon the sounds of terror were drowned out by the news anchor talking about the “recent incident” in Poland. They explained that war had broken out in the country, and that apparently America was supposedly helping in the fight.

Oh. That made sense. They were political allies, but he did find it a bit odd that they didn’t show any images of tanks nor any weapons or troops, but that may just be classified information. Now Craig was starting to see how Tweek had gotten his insane theory, he was just misreading the information! Of course, that was the logical explanation, Tweek did it without knowing the facts and just put together what he could with the ideas he had.

A feeling of relief surged through the ravennette as he let out a breath he had no idea that he was holding in. After that he didn’t really feel the need to pay attention, everything was fine! Until it wasn’t. Craig raised his hand to be excused from class to use the bathroom. He didn’t actually need to go, but he might as well send a link to Tweek about this whole thing so he could calm the fuck down. Not that he cared a whole lot but they were in the same friend group and because of that it was kind of his job to tell his friends when they were spouting bull shit.

The ravennette walked into the hallway, immediately stopping in front of the classroom to pull out his phone. Craig really didn’t mind if he got caught either sense objectively learning his country might enter a war wasn’t exactly therapeutic. At the very most he’d lie and say that he was talking to his parents about this whole thing, it wasn’t like anyone was going to stop him from talking to his parents.

He quickly opened his messages and went to his contact for Tweek. Wow, he hadn’t texted Tweek in forever, not since a few months ago for a project they were doing together. Anyways, he knew why Tweek was gone, but he could only guess about the other four boys who had probably left for some strange reason or adventure, like every other week.

Dude, where the fck r u?? U heard that it was just a war thing right? Not ur bs conspiracy theory

Yep, that looks right enough. Craig attached a link to the CNN video and the article explaining it all. The response came in only seconds later. 

If your refrigerator is running then you better go and catch it, Craig. 

What? Of all the responses he expected from Tweek Tweak that was certainly not one of them. Craig shoved his phone angrily back in his pocket before entering the classroom. The teacher paid him no mind as he walked back to his seat, slumping over his desk. So stupid. 

“... and that’s basically everything you will ever need to know about algebra, any questions?” The teacher was facing the class, arms crossed, when he nodded to someone behind Craig. “Butters?” 

“I don’t get it.” Groans erupted from the class and the teacher rolled his eyes. 

“Okay, let me explain it one more time.” He turned back to the board and began mumbling something. Suddenly, there were sirens wailing outside. It wasn’t anything strange to hear sirens, and at first everyone ignored them. But then there were more, and the intensity of their sound grew. Eventually everyone stopped paying attention to the teacher and started glancing towards the window. 

“Oh gee,” Butters says worriedly from behind Craig.

The shrieks of the sirens and their abundance stirred something uncomfortable inside of Craig. They kept coming and echoing throughout the town. It was haunting. 

“Butters pay attention!” The teacher yells just before the phone behind his desk rings. He goes to answer and nods as he listens. He sighs as he hangs up the phone and looks to the class with a frown. “Okay students, we’re locking down.” 

What the Hell is going on? 

___________________

“Dude, this bunker is so lame,” Cartman groans. “Mine is so much kewler.”

The six boys stood in the middle of Tweek's makeshift bunker. The small blonde was able to set things up in a neat way. He had made beds out of blankets and pillows, spacing them out in the middle of the floor where nothing else was. He had lined his food and survival supplies along the walls and saved a corner for every medical supply he could find in his house. Tweek felt as if it wasn’t enough though. 

“Yeah,” Stan says, “Where’s the really cool stuff you mentioned, Kenny?” 

Kenny is standing next to Tweek, hands behind his back and a funny smile on his face. Tweek glances at him before looking over at the three other boys. “Urghh, Really cool stuff?” He asks. Kenny does an awkward duck away from Tweek, walking to stand next to the other boys. 

“Uh, well I sort of promised them really cool stuff,” he smiles sheepishly and shrugs. 

“You what!?” Tweek panics, “why would you promise something like that!? That’s too much pressure!” 

“I fucking knew you were lying, Kenny!” Cartman says suddenly. “This is lame you guys, lets go.” The three boys turn around to leave, both Kenny and Tweek step forward with their hands out. 

“Wait!” They both say at the same time. The other boys stop and turn for a moment, unimpressed. 

“Thanks for wasting our-” before Cartman could finish the floor beneath them began to shake. All of the color left Tweek’s face and a pit sat at the bottom of his stomach. 

Oh God, he thinks, it’s happening.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes by Themo: Thank you for reading the second chapter! I hope you enjoyed it! Life saving fact today will be, if a tornado looks like it’s standing still, it actually means that it’s coming right for you!


	3. Lockdown Downtown

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Craig starts to get doubts about his teachers and the adults, and using Clyde as his excuse, finally decides that Tweek’s bunker can’t be all bad.

Lockdown is never a happy or fun time for anyone, and for the few assholes that enjoyed screaming in the halls of a crisis, they were about to get a rude awakening by the hands of the fates themselves. Craig took these kinds of things seriously, and he paid attention when they happened, usually staying calm, but this was unnerving him! Not necessarily the fact that they were getting a tremor in Colorado, but rather the timing of it all.

Tweek, just a few days ago, comes running in with this crazy, crackpot, loose screw theory about how something big is coming, and now they’re on lockdown after a war is declared? It seemed like two many things that happened at once to be a coincidence, but at the same time there was no way that it could possibly be true, it wasn’t logical enough!

First of all, Tweek had never been right about this sort of thing before, his track record was broken and all over the place, but even if you take shots in the dark you’re bound to hit something eventually. Ignoring that, his ideas were so out of this world, in a very literal sense, that even if it was true wouldn’t he have heard people running in the streets yelling ‘the end is nigh’ right about now? 

Okay, okay, he was overthinking this, he had to calm down, take deep breaths, and figure out what was happening. Suppose Tweek was right for once. He had been in the right place at the right time but was unlucky enough to be the only one to see it. If you think about it that way, then maybe there really was something going on here but that’s only assuming that the blond was right.

Assuming that he wasn’t made a lot more logical sense, but didn’t quite fit together either! Sure, the videos provided by the government showed everyone that there was definitely chaos, but from where? The idea of war seemed to fit but he hadn’t exactly seen any victims of soldiers or weapons or anything like that! Not only had he no visual proof, but what about this tremor going on right now?

Well, of course if all of the adults who had talked to him were right, then it was just a side effect of the war brought on by… by who? Unknown enemies? A new country? Wakanda?! No, no, no, there was someone against Poland, he knew that, who is allied with American, hence the tremor. Perhaps this was all caused by an attack on them, which would explain the ground shaking right now!

But no, it had all come too quickly, all too soon, there was absolutely no way that even with armies and weapons prepared that they had gotten here with no signs or warnings beforehand! And the “war” had only been going on for a day, how could something possibly move so quickly through Poland just to attack their allies? Fuck, with the short time it took, there really might be weapons of mass destruction somewhere! No, this was no time for even more conspiracy theories! Craig would just have to wait it out in hopes that another clue would reveal itself and he could make a proper call.

As his class stood up, the ravennette joined them knowing that his safest bet was with people who really knew what was going on. Sure, the rest of the kids in his class were screaming loudly, but that could easily be the desire to scream and fear rather than real endangerment. The teacher held the door open for the class and instructed that they all leave for the basement in a single file line.

The basement…?

In an earthquake? What the hell, everyone knows you want to be as far away as possible from any structure during an earthquake! So why were they all being told to go down to the basement, had their teacher finally snapped and lost it? They should be exiting the building as quickly as possible, so why were they all fleeing to the one place basically promising death! The structure could collapse, the roof could cave in, for heaven’s sakes, they could all get crushed in a matter of minutes or trapped underneath the ground inside the basement!

And that’s when Craig mentally slapped himself, shaking off the thought and convincing himself that he misheard. Of course there would be no way that they actually were going downstairs, it would just be plan stupid! So when they all left the room, in a rather jumbled line, Craig’s fears seemed to come to life as he realized they weren’t going towards an exit. 

He swallowed the lump in his throat and decided that this was really too much, twice is a coincidence but three is a pattern. Something was wrong, deeply wrong, and all of his logical senses were telling him to leave and not trust the adults, who were clearly keeping things from him. As much as he wanted to believe that no one he should trust was actually lying to him, it was a much better option to go with his gut and head on this one.

At that moment he got a tap on his shoulder. Craig turned around to face Clyde, who had a rather nervous look on his face. This... was definitely not expected. “Um Criag… I don’t know about you but, uh, I’m going to go. Just in case you worry when you don’t see me-“

“I wouldn’t. Where are you going?

“Oh? Well, I was going to head to Tweek’s bunker. If we’re going to go underground anyways, why not go to Tweek’s, I mean, he’s had a day to prepare… plus I have a feeling that if I’d want to stay in a collapsed house, he’d know what to do. The kid’s crazy,”

“Don’t say kid, he’s not a kid. He’s a delusional young adult.”

Clyde pursed his lips and shook his head. “Yeah, so, I’d rather hang out with him than stick around here. I was just asking if you wanted to join me or whate-“

“Fine. But just because I don’t fully trust you alone.”

“Will you stop interrupting me!” Clyde hissed before calming himself. “So yeah, we should probably go now before it’s too late.”

Craig rolled his eyes and just nodded, glancing around the halls filling with students and grabbed his friend by the wrist. He didn’t want to draw any attention to them, especially because he wasn’t really fully trusting of the people around him. So the ravennette pulled his concerned friend away from their point of origin and hurried past the other people pushing against them. Damn it, had no one else found this suspicious? Well, not many other people had heard Tweek’s ramblings…

Soon the people started to thin out until it was just a few stragglers who occupied the emptiness. The ground had stopped shaking as violently but rather had become a soft hum, still making items around them vibrate and tickle the skin. Even so, Craig would rather leave now and know that he was doing this of his own free will than risk being trapped under a basement in the school knowing he was just another sheep. 

Craig pushed the exit doors open and Clyde slipped by, noticing that everything was awfully quiet for an earthquake that had just happened. Clyde glanced around, his own confusion a lot more visible than his other counterpart, who kept the same stone expression planted on his face. The brunette glanced around, clearly not knowing which direction to head.

They hadn’t been over to Tweek’s house since the fourth grade, and they weren't sure if they had moved or not in that time period. So how were they supposed to know where to go, it’s not like they had a map or anything that could point them in the correct direction. “Ah fuck, haha, sorry man, guess I don’t know where he lives after all. We should probably go back inside then.” Clyde laughed off his embarrassment.

What? Go back inside? No, no, no, no, no, they were not going to do that, not at all, Craig wasn’t going to allow them to go back! That school was a death trap with teachers and people they should be trusting showing them to their doom. “No. Just… give me a second to remember where he lives.” Craig said sternly.

And that’s when it hit him. He didn’t actually need to remember, he already had Tweek’s address since the very beginning of the day! Thank god for Tweek feeling the need to put up flyers with his home address on them, and thank god Craig took one down! The ravennette reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out that crushed up piece of paper, unraveling it and making sure that he wouldn’t tear the address up.

“Okay, I got it.”

Craig carefully folded up the paper and put it back in his pocket just in case he would need it for further use. The black haired boy led his friend through the streets, taking notice of the condition of their small mountain town. Everything seemed to be quiet, soundless, and not buzzing with the usual noise of car motors humming, people walking their dogs down the streets, or even the sounds of footsteps besides their own. It was a stretch to say that everyone had vanished, but it certainly seemed so…

The only sound to be heard was themselves and the still slightly quaking ground.

“Craig, this is kind of freaking me out. I thought that this was just an earthquake or something, but, like, I don’t know it doesn’t feel like one. I mean, I’ve never felt an earthquake before but this doesn’t feel like one, or at least not how I imagined it.”

“Yeah. I guess so. Less potholes I guess. There it is, now be cool don’t tell him we’re begging for this or anything.”

Craig pointed to a house on the end of the block, light blue paint chipping away to reveal colorless greys. Tweek’s house had never been in great condition, this was true, but that was mostly from neglect rather than the lack of income or materials to fix it up. It was really kind of sad actually, how his parents tended to ignore their son and his living space unless it affected their business. No wonder he was coming up with crazy conspiracy theories, he wasn’t raised right.

The ravennette was having a rather hard time walking up to Tweek’s house as he found himself dragging his feet and denying what he wanted. Had the offer of a solid underground bunker expired sense Craig had not only said it was a stupid idea, but called Tweek crazy to his face? Well, maybe for him but Clyde was probably good enough to get in regardless. After what seemed like an eternity, he was on the front steps of a vaguely familiar place. But before he had time to prepare himself, Clyde had done them both a favor and hopped up on the steps, pressing the doorbell down for a continuous ringing sound.

Honestly it wasn’t the smartest thing in the world sense essentially they were trying to apologize, but at least that should get his attention. And after a solid minute of Clyde having his fun with the doorbell (he didn’t have one at home, so it was always fun to mess around with one) the door opened. 

“G-god damnit, knock it o— oh. It’s y-y-you guys. Why are you here, shouldn’t you be in school or something sense it’s sooooooo important to you?” Tweek said, leaving the door relatively open.

“Please Tweek, can we come into your super-dy awesome mega chocolate covered ultra bunker?” Clyde spat out, just before Craig elbowed him hard in the rib cage. He told him not to beg. “Ow!”

“Ugh. Clyde’s being a pussy and didn’t want to stay in the school when the earthquake started, so we left.” Craig corrected, leaving out the convenient fact that he had been planning to leave when Clyde came to him. 

The blond opened the door up a little bit more, raising a brow. “Oh… um, didn’t it end though…? You know what, never mind, it’s probably safest that you come in, nngh, and stay. For the month.” He rambled off, stepping to the side and letting his classmates in.

Craig didn’t like the idea that this boy was the thing he was leaning on at the moment, but he took solace in knowing that it wouldn’t have to be long. He’d just calm himself and then go home, and it’d be done with. Then after a while Tweek would realize that he was wrong and everything would go back to normal, because that was the only logical explanation. Every week someone seemed to get into a life changing situation, a hijink, but it would all go back to normal after a few days. This was just one of those things.

“Right this way.” Tweek nervously led the way to the basement, holding open the heavy door so the other two could slip by. Clyde enthusiastically slipped by, interested in the idea of an underground bunker, whereas Craig let out a sigh, rolled his eyes, and walked down the stairs. And honestly, out of all of the things he was expecting to see in Tweek’s basement of horrors, he was not expecting Kenny, Cartman, Kyle and Stan to be here too.

“What the fuck? Why are you guys here?” Craig complained, raising a brow.

Cartman was the first to speak, crossing his arms and shooting a glare at Kenny, who simply shrugged in reply. “Fucking Kennie said there was some really cool stuff down here and then there wasn’t, so we tried to leave and then Tweek wouldn’t let us! Then the ground started shaking and they still wouldn’t let us out!” He spat, wrinkling his nose and clearly annoyed. 

Clyde turned around quickly, eyes wide, now knowing that the moment they had set foot in the house, it was a trap! “But you’re going to let us go, right Tweek? You’re not making us stay in your basement because of that alien invasion thing, are you…?” He almost stuttered, becoming increasingly nervous. Tweek wasn’t actually serious, was he…?

“No, that would be silly! Me and Kenny are. L-look, you guys don’t realize it yet, but we’re saving you, haven’t you heard how q-q-quiet it is…? Why do you think so? Because everyone is gone! O-or hiding, or captured!”

Craig groaned to himself, knowing he should have tried harder to shut this all down when it was under control, and turned to the other people in the kind of cramped room. “Look, those two might be crazy enough to think this is somehow good for us, but I say we over power them, and just leave.” It wasn’t exactly a riveting speech, but it sure as hell worked.

“Hey, yeah!” Kyle perked up, looking to his other friends, excluding Kenny. “Tweek is a skinny little druggie, and Kenny’s not actually going to hurt us, so we can just force our way out!”

It would be a little offensive that they were talking about the two of them like they weren’t in the room, but in this case it was actually helpful. Kenny rushed to the scene, starting the commotion by tackling Clyde (just because he was the closest) to the ground. “Tweek, lock the doors!” He called.

“Kenny, get off, this is weird!”

And like the fearful person he was, Tweek ran up the stairs and grabbed the key to be used off of the wall, and locked the door. That’s when Craig entered, and practically shoved the blond into the very door he had been protecting. What was he actually planning on doing? The ravennette grabbed at the key, just to stumble on the stairs, and immediately tried to catch his balance. Once Craig had his focus back on Tweek, the beach blond put the key to his lips.

“Everyone stop!” He yelled, showing that he had the key. “C-Craig get back down the stairs, or I will swallow the key! And if anything like this happens again, we’re all stuck down here till we starve to death!” 

With that, the rest of the boys became deathly still, and Craig slowly started to back down the stairs with his hands to his chest to show he wasn’t going to lunge for the key a second time. Kenny slowly climbed off of Clyde, and they exchanged an awkward apology and forgiveness, still trying not to move too quickly. They were all acting the kind of way you act when someone has a bomb strapped to their chest.

Tweek huffed in triumph and shoved the key into his front pocket, making his way down the stairs and sitting on a mat sprawled out in the center of the bunker. No one else moved for about five minutes wondering if it would set off the blond and make him swallow the key. It was possible that Tweek, with Kenny as his accomplice, had essentially kidnapped them. 

Soon Craig had become antsy. He hated this whole situation. He hated being down here. He hated that he was stuck down here. He hated being stuck down here with Tweek. He hated that Tweek was his captor and he willingly walked into his trap! Craig should be smarter than this, he should have predicted what would happen if he made himself vulnerable! He had to get out! Tweek’s bathroom had a window right…? And this bunker didn’t seem to have a “spot” to go.

“Tweek, I need to piss. Can I use the restroom?”

The beach blond glanced at Craig and seemed to assess the situation before letting out a long sigh and nodding. As much as he knew what was going on and what his classmate was planning, he understood that he couldn’t risk it. And if Craig really needed to go, then it’d end up being a much bigger problem for all of them. The ravennette had succeeded in exploiting the one big flaw in his bunker.

Tweek stood up and grimaced, turning to Kenny and smiling. “You can handle everyone d-down here, can’t you? I’m going to sh-sh-show Craig the way…” he trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck. 

Kenny gave the thumbs up and watched as Tweek led Craig to the door, unlocking it before stepping out with the other boy. And with that, Kenny stood at the entrance of the steps until he heard the click of a lock from the outside. “Alright, now listen up! For the time being, you’re all my bitches. Who wants to be my main bitch?”

___________________

“You know Tweek, I can find it on my own.” Craig said softly as the door to the basement closed behind him, and Tweek locked it from the outside.

“Nngh, of course I know you c-could find your way around, but I’m not dumb, I’m just going to make sure that you d-don’t run off or something like that…” Tweek stuttered, shoving the key back into his pocket and turning to the other.

The beach blond reached out and lightly grabbed the other’s arm, just to have it slapped away a moment later. Okay, so, maybe Craig wasn’t the most touchy guy in the world, and that was good to know… Tweek slowly led Craig to the stairs, making sure to avoid every creaking floorboard and out of place screw. He felt the need to stay quiet, that any move he made had to be in complete silence, as not to draw attention to himself. Other than Craig, who felt the need to stomp around everywhere he went. This wasn’t the case now, however, as Craig was just walking normally.

“You have a lot of windows in the hallways. You know, I’ve never realized how few houses have windows in the halls, but your house is really lively. With all the light, anyway. I’ve only ever seen that in mental hospitals and well, regular hospitals.” Craig trailed off, glancing out the clear glass.

The sight wasn’t what he was expecting. It reeked of wrongness, of something horrid in the air. It was too silent, too still. Thankfully the birds had come back, but they refused to sing their songs, perhaps to mourn the noise? The dead? No, Craig would rather not think about that, think about the possibility of Tweek being right despite the coincidences.

“Um, th-th-thank you I guess…? The coffee shop used to be operated f-from our house so my parents wanted to make it as lively as possible for the clients. But I don’t like them… they make me feel e-exposed… and it’s too quiet… and the ground hasn’t stopped vibrating either…” he muttered, copying Craig and peaking out of the window.

Whereas Craig saw emptiness and silence, Tweek saw the promise of doom and death, like a grey cloud that blankets the sky… silence was not peace, but rather the proof that he needed to know that all was lost, and the sky would eventually blacken around them. And he hated the windows that would definitely show them the blackness around them.

Once they had made it to the bathroom, Tweek finally gave Craig the privacy that he needed, letting the other into the room. But only on the condition that he gave verbal confirmation that he was still there, of course. Craig immediately locked the doors and turned to find a form of escape. The bathroom was rather nice, polished and clean, which was something he was thankful for. The tooth brushes lined up with two, whom Craig assumed were for Tweek’s parents, and a third that he assumed was Tweek’s due to the fact that the brush had been scrubbed down. The bristles were a mess.

Besides from that one ugly imperfection, everything seemed rather nice and in place. He couldn’t decide though if that was because Tweek had meticulously cleaned it or if his parents had. Either way, it didn’t quite matter. “C-Craig, you still there…?”

“Yeah, still here.” Craig called back, inspecting the obvious way of escape, which was the window. Wide, easy to crawl through if you were small enough, with a thin curtain pulled over it. But he couldn’t focus on that for long as he noticed that the toothbrushes he was recently inspecting had started to shake and rattle. In fact, the whole room had started to shake and rattle! Stupid after shocks, couldn’t be trusted.

“Craig, everything a-all right? Please hurry up!”

Craig rolled his eyes and grabbed the fabric covering the window as he thought that Tweek was utterly full of shit. He opened the curtains. “Yeah, yeah, if you’re going to—“ and that’s when Craig saw it.

A huge eyeball. No, not one, but many. Many eyes in rows, no, rings! Many rings! The thing floated in the air, clearly because Craig was on the second floor. It illuminated the room with a bright light that mimicked a spotlight, blacking out everything else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes by Themo: wow, chapter three, am I right? Thank everyone for all of the support! 💗 Your life saving fact today will be; if you are ever stabbed, leave whatever stabbed you, in. Pulling (supposedly) a knife out of you is just going to make you lose more blood, so it’s a much better option to call 911 and leave it in. If you’re still bleeding a lot, use cloth whether it’s from a shirt, your pants, a hat, a bandanna, hold it around whatever is in you to help stop the bleeding. DO NOT TAKE THIS OFF unless a professional who will save your life tells you otherwise, even if it soaks up all it can, and blood is still coming out. In that case, wrap another piece of cloth around that until the bleeding stops.


	4. Busted Knees and Tight Pants

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the face of danger, what can our heroes do?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes from Themo: Special shout out to Cas for being AWESOME all the time! That’s for taking a gander at chapter four! 💗 Life saving tip: if you’re choking, here’s how to give yourself the hind-lick! Ball your fist up, and put your other hand around that fist. Put the bent thumb of your balled up hand below your ribs and push. If you can’t do it hard enough for whatever reason, push yourself against a table or chair, anything to dislodge what’s in your throat.

“What the fuck,” Craig blurts as this… _thing_ stares back at him. Is it looking at him? He’s not sure. There’s sudden banging on the door behind him, but Craig can’t bring himself to look away from the creature. What he was looking at made absolutely no sense to him; in a way, looking at it felt _wrong._

“Craig, open the door! What’s going on?” Tweek messing with the doorknob, making it rattle, is what brought Craig out of his trance. He turned quickly on his heels and yanked the door open, causing Tweek to fall forward, smashing his face into Craig’s chest knocking them both onto the floor. 

Craig eyes squeeze shut as he hits the floor and Tweek yelps from somewhere above him. “God, Tweek, what the-” 

He’s cut off by the smaller boy’s shrill scream. The ravenette opens his eyes to see Tweek staring in horror at the window behind him. “OhmygodCraigweneedtogonow-” 

“Dude, I can’t understand you, slow down-” 

He’s not able to say anything else, as Tweek suddenly jumps off the floor, pulling Craig along with him. The two ran frantically down the first flight of stairs, stumbling along the way. Tweek yelling obscenities and Craig still trying to figure out what they were running from. As they came to the basement, Tweek swung the door open and shoved Craig inside, making him tumble down the steps. 

Craig tried to catch himself mid fall but was unsuccessful, the jagged steps hitting several different parts of his body on the way down. He landed at the bottom of the staircase on his back, gasping for air. 

“Holy shit, Craig are you okay?” One of the other guys from the basement asks, Craig can’t tell who it is, all he sees are stars. The door to the basement shuts with a loud bang, and the room erupts into chaos.

“Tweek, what the fuck?” 

“You guys! I-I saw them- it. I saw it! They’re here! We-” 

“Dude, you could have really hurt Craig.” 

“Fuck m-man, they’re coming after us. Oh _Jesus,_ we’re all gonna die!” 

Craig sits up, feeling pain shoot through his back and he groans. There’s someone next to him, trying to carefully help him, it still hurts though. Craig pushes them away and tries to stand but feels a sharp pain go through his knee and he almost cries. 

“Uh, I think my knee is busted,” the ravenette is kneeling on his good knee and cradling the injured one. It’s throbbing at his tender touch and he knows that there is no way he’ll be able to stand right now. He looks up to find everyone staring at him in concern, except for Tweek who is staring at him with wide, fear-ridden eyes. 

Everyone in the room slowly turns to stare at Tweek as well, which makes the blonde shrink into himself. “Agh! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to push you down the stairs, Craig, but we’re in _danger!”_

“The only one putting us in danger is the freak that locked us down here in the first place!” says Cartman. “I’m tired of this, you guys. I want to go home.” A chorus of agreeance sounds throughout the room as some of the boys start making their way up the stairs, quickly crowding around Tweek near the top. Everyone except for Kenny who was watching helplessly from beside Craig. 

Craig couldn’t believe he was about to do this, but he felt he had no choice at this point. It’s not exactly like he could deny what he saw out there. “Guys, wait,” he says. Everyone turns to look at him, all a different level of irritated, Craig swallows. “I don’t really know _what’s_ going on out there, but uh.. I saw.. Something.”

A look of both surprise and relief passed over Tweek’s face, as if he couldn’t believe that Craig would come to his defense. Craig tried to ignore it. The rest of the boys were all staring at Craig, seemingly flabbergasted. They looked amongst themselves as if to say, “is he serious??” Then Kyle was the first to speak. 

“What do you mean by ‘something’?” It was then that the ground beneath them began to quake again. The intensity was similar to what they had experienced before and everyone quickly tried to find their balance on something, but ultimately everyone on the staircase joined Craig on the floor. Along with them, Kenny fell directly on top of Craig’s injured leg. 

Different noises were made around the noirette, all variations of pain. If Craig weren’t so in pain himself, he might have found it amusing. Kenny lay motionless on top of his leg, making no indication that he was going to move, and it took everything in Craig not to cry out in pain. They had to wait for the quake to be over before anyone could actually move. 

It lasted for about ten minutes, but it felt like an hour. Soon, the catastrophic shaking became the small tremor it was before, and the boys all let out a collective sigh of relief. 

“That,” Tweek is the first to talk, lifting himself off of the ground, “is why we can’t leave this basement.” 

“Dude, that earthquake was pretty intense,” Stan says as he helps Kyle off the floor. “I hope our parents are okay.” Everyone else is standing up and dusting themselves off. Clyde muttering, “man, this was my _good_ sweater,” under his breath. As Kenny begins to lift himself off of Craig’s knee, he can’t help but whimper a little as the release of pressure sends a new wave of pain through his leg. 

“Yeah, enough of this game, Tweek,” Kyle says, “we should really get home.” 

“But this _isn’t_ a game!” Tweek tries. “That wasn’t _just_ an earthquake! We’re really in danger!” The blonde starts to pace around the makeshift bunker, looking through things, starting to gather papers. Craig sees this behavior and rolls his eyes. _Of course. Of-fucking-course._ “This has _got_ to be what attacked Poland! The ground shaking, the weird quietness of everything. You guys, _I was right.”_

A few snickers sound about the room and Craig furrows his brow. He sees Kenny next to him and elbows his leg, silently asking him for help. The tall blonde obliges and hooks and arm under Craig’s armpit and lifts him a little too roughly for comfort. Soon he’s standing, but with all of his weight on his good knee. 

“Tweek, enough,” he says. Tweek’s frantic waving stops and his head whips to Craig, his eyes unsure. “Listen, what we saw up their was freaky as fuck, okay? I’m not even sure if it was real. But, Goddamnit, _Poland was invaded by the military.”_ Yes, Craig had seen that weird monster thing upstairs, but the more he thought about it, the more it seemed like a set up. Tweek was crazy, that was a fact. But was he crazy enough to set up a weird fake monster outside of his house just to spook Craig into believing him? If Craig was a betting man, he would place all of his money on ‘yes’. “Stop freaking everyone out with your nonsense!” 

Tweek stood frozen, baffled by this turn of events. “But, you saw-” 

“I don’t know what I saw,” Craig reiterates.

“But the earthquake-” 

“Earthquakes happen everywhere all the time, dude!” Craig throws his hands up in the air, in a sweeping gesture. For a brief second he forgot that his knee was fucked, and he began to walk towards Tweek, but was stopped short the moment the foot of his bad knee hit the ground. He would have fallen to the ground, but thankfully he was able to catch himself on one of the boys standing nearby. 

“Holy shit dude, are you alright?” Clyde asked as Craig gripped his arm for dear life. No, of course he wasn’t alright. Just the slightest pressure, and his knee felt like it was bursting into flames while being shot at all at the same time. “Should we take him to a doctor?” 

“Shut up,” Craig grunts at him, before looking back at Tweek with a deep frown. “I was okay with waiting out the earthquake with you, but now you’re spouting bullshit conspiracy theories again trying to convince everyone that the world is ending when _it’s not_ . The point is, you’re just nuts and locking us down here because _you_ don’t feel safe is fucking _insane._ ” 

The room suddenly erupts in sound again, as the boys agree with Craig. Cartman cheers, “finally someone’s making some fucking sense!” while Stan and Kyle express concern for their families and wanting to leave. Clyde stays silent next to Craig though, looking more confused than anything. 

There’s the sound of someone clearing their throat from behind them, and suddenly Kenny walks forward with his hands shoved in the pockets of his parka. He’s looking at the floor and chewing on his cheek, considering what he’s about to say. He takes a deep breath, then looks up at the group. 

“I believe Tweek.” 

Another eruption of sound, only this time it is less than favorable. Kenny lifts his arms over the group and yells, “Hey! Shut up and hear me out!” It takes a few long moments before everyone in the room quiets down, Craig only looks at Kenny skeptically. He’s not sure when Kenny became super extra best buddies with Tweek, but he knows that he doesn’t like it. 

“Listen,” Kenny starts, “I know it sounds _crazy-”_ he mimics Craig’s nasally voice, “-but I believe Tweek. He’s done a lot of research, what he’s found and what is happening makes a lot of sense, and well.. I believe him. And if Tweek thinks that staying down here will keep us safe, then I trust him.” 

Kenny looks at Tweek then and shares a soft smile with the boy. Tweek is looking back at the taller blonde with stars in his big eyes and a small pink blush dusting his freckled cheeks. Craig has to look away before he vomits. 

“But I do have to say, I am worried about my family,” Kenny says solemnly. “I can’t stop thinking about Karen.” 

“Okay, okay,” suddenly Kyle is stepping forward, “let's say all this crazy shit _is_ real. Just for a moment, let's pretend all this bullshit that Tweek has been spouting is the truth. Shouldn’t we still go and make sure our parents are still alive? Our families? I mean, I have a little brother, dude.” 

Everyone, even Craig, turns to look at Tweek then. He twitches under the pressure of the room and he looks at everyone sheepishly, running a hand through his hair and resting it on the back of his neck. “Well, I guess you all have a point…” Craig wonders why Tweek seems unconcerned for his own family, but pushes the question to the back of his mind. The only thing that’s important right now is getting the Hell out of here. 

“I have an idea,” Kenny says, “why don’t we send a group in order to see what it’s like out there? Like a reconnaissance mission of sorts.” 

“But who do we send? And how do we know that you won’t _die_ the moment you set foot out the door? How are we even going to know you’re okay? What if no one comes back?” The questions fly out of Tweek’s mouth in rapid succession, the panic clear on the smaller blonde’s face. 

Kenny calmly walks closer to the twitching boy and places a gentle hand on his shoulder, craning his neck so that he meets Tweek’s eyes. The posture and proximity is a little _too_ intimate and makes Craig shift uncomfortably where he stands next to Clyde. These two should just get a room already. 

“Hey, it’s okay! Listen, I’ll go and I’ll take a few people with me and I’ll update you as frequently as I can through text.” 

“And if something bad happens, you’ll call me, right?” 

“Yes.” 

“You promise?” 

“I promise.” 

_Ugh, barf! They sound like a married couple._ “Can I go?” Tweek and Kenny stop staring at each other long enough to look over at Craig. A smile pulls at one corner of Kenny’s mouth and he fully turns his body towards Craig before pointing at his knee. 

“You’re injured, I’m afraid you’re not going anywhere.” Craig opens his mouth to protest, but is interrupted before he even gets the chance. “No, I’m taking Kyle, Stan, and Cartman.” 

Just as the _what?_ leaves Craig’s mouth, the other three boys cheer. Clyde scoffs from next to him. “Wait, _what?_ How come I don’t get to go?” He asks. 

“We can’t have everyone besides Tweek and Craig outside,” Kenny answers, “what if something happens to us? Then Tweek would be stuck having to deal with Craig all by himself! A fate worse than death.” 

“Oh God, please don’t do that to me,” Tweek says, sounding genuinely frightened. Craig rolls his eyes and flips the short blonde off. 

“Well then shouldn’t your group be smaller? Because this way, you’re taking more than half of our people with you.” Clyde’s words stop Kenny in his tracks. He looks to the three boys who are getting anxious to leave, then back to the brunette with a thoughtful look on his face. 

“You’re right,” he concludes. “It’s final then. Cartman: you stay put. Kyle and Stan: you’re coming with me.” 

“Wa-wa-wa-wait. What!?” Cartman yells, “Why me? Why not one of those assholes?” 

“Because Cartman,” Kenny sighs, “I know you, and I know that out of the three of you, you’re the one most likely to either a. Get killed or b. Run away and then get killed. So,” the honey blonde lets his sentence trail off before shrugging and turning back to Kyle and Stan. 

Cartman yells profanities at the trio as they gear up to head into the great outdoors. Craig huffs and leans his weight onto Clyde. Well, this is not how he wanted things to go. If Craig’s knee wasn’t threatening to burst, he would’ve been complaining about the situation with Cartman. He curses under his breath, trying to devise a new plan of escape. 

It takes the group of three less than ten minutes to devise a plan and are ready to leave. Kenny and Tweek double check to make sure that they have each other’s numbers in their phones. Craig watched them from across the room, Clyde had helped him pile a bunch of blankets on top of each other in order to give his knee some extra cushion. Sitting on the floor was by no means comfortable, but Tweek wasn’t going to let him leave and this was as good as it gets. 

“-also we should really check out Craig’s knee and make sure it’s not too badly injured.” Craig hears the end of Kenny’s sentence. Tweek looks over at Craig then and their eyes meet, there’s something that looks like guilt on the blonde’s face and something inside of Craig twists in anger. 

Of course Tweek should feel guilty. He’s the reason Craig’s knee is hurt, he’s the reason they’re trapped and Craig can’t go and see a doctor, he’s the reason for this entire _bullshit_ situation. Craig huffs and looks away, staring daggers at the basement walls instead. 

“Y-yeah…” Tweek mumbles. 

“Well alright then!” Kenny says to the room, drawing all eyes towards him. “Stan, Kyle, you ready?” The two boys are already lingering by the staircase with impatient looks on their face, they don’t bother to respond. “Okay, looks like we’re off!” 

Once the trio leaves, the bunker is filled with an awkward silence. Cartman is sitting with his arms crossed at the foot of the staircase and Clyde is walking about the room, snooping through the items in Tweek’s basement. The twitchy blonde had gone over to the corner of the room, rummaging through a shelf with his back towards Craig. 

Craig leaned back on his palms, glaring at the boy, wanting to focus on anything that would distract him from the pain he felt in his knee. “So… what now?” 

“I’m getting stuff to help with your knee,” Tweek replies, Craig scoffs. 

“You know what would really help with my knee? A fucking _doctor._ ” 

The blonde sighs, “I don’t think that’s possible right now, Craig. But we won’t know for sure until I hear from Kenny-” 

“It’s only ‘not possible right now’ because you have us fucking trapped in here like a fucking psycho maniac asshole!” Cartman butts in. “I swear to God dude, if my phone wasn’t dead right now I-” 

“Dude, chill,” Clyde says. 

“Guys, listen,” Tweek turns to face the room again, holding some items in his hands. “I know you guys think I’m crazy or whatever, but I really believe there’s something out there trying to kill us.” He begins walking towards where Craig is sitting on the floor, “If I hear back from Kenny and he tells me there’s nothing to worry about, then I’ll let you go.” 

There’s a general vibe of “yeah, _sure”_ that passes over the room, Cartman mumbling something under his breath. Soon, Tweek is kneeling down next to Craig’s outstretched leg, placing the various things that he gathered on the floor next to him. He studies Craig’s jean-covered knee and makes an uneasy face. 

“What?” Craig asks. 

“Uhm,” the blonde hesitates, “well…” The sentence trails off and he continues to stare pointedly at Craig’s injured knee. Tweek’s face flushes a deep red color and he fidgets with his nails. The ravenette frowns. 

“Well what!?” He snaps, “just spit it out!” 

“Okay! Okay… Just- don’t make a big reaction out of it…” Craig only stares at Tweek, unimpressed. Once the shorter boy realizes that Craig isn’t going to respond, he huffs and refuses to make eye contact. “Craig.. I need you to…” He mumbles the rest and Craig outwardly groans and smacks the blonde on his shoulder. 

“Dude!” He scolds. 

“Jesus, okay! I need you to take off your pants!” 

Craig’s not sure what he was expecting, but he was disappointed in himself for not expecting the worse. Cartman giggled from where he sat and said something akin to, “jeez guys, get a room”. Craig’s jaw clenched. 

Probably noticing the change in Craig’s demeanor, Tweek’s eyes widened and he held his hands up in defense, shaking his head. “No! No, it’s not like that! I just need to see your knee, man. And well, your jeans are really _tight._ ” 

The giggle that had escaped from Cartman moments before turned into full on laughter as he folds into himself. If Craig’s jaw could clench any tighter he would probably break his teeth at this point. Tweek is looking at him apologetically. Craig knew that arguing with Tweek would only serve to harm him because his knee _really_ hurt. So, the noirette bit his tongue and rolled his eyes. 

Without saying a word, Craig moved to unbutton his jeans, and lifted himself up enough to slide them past his waist, revealing his navy blue boxers. Tweek made a move to help him but Craig slapped his hands away and gave the boy a warning look. Thankfully, Tweek backed off. 

Just the feeling of the coarse jean fabric rubbing against his knee made Craig want to cry out in pain, but he bit his lower lip to hold it back. As he pushed his jeans down the rest of the way, his knee was revealed to be very red and swollen. Tweek stares at it with wide, concerned eyes. His jaw slack in shock. Yeah, it looks pretty bad. 

Tweek gently places the tip of his finger on Craig’s knee and the taller boy hisses in pain. The blond jerks back and frowns. “I have something that might help, but you won’t like it…” He rummages through the pile of supplies next to him and picks up a box with a penguin on it. From the box he pulls out a small pack and cracks it, shaking it afterwards.

“What is that?” Craig asks. 

“It’s a cold pack. I used to hurt myself a lot as a kid, so my mom bought a lot of them,” Tweek places the pack gently on Craig’s aching knee. The ravenette braces himself for immense pain, and he does feel it, but it’s not as bad. The cold contrasting with swollen heat almost offers relief. “You should really keep your knee elevated too, it will relieve some of the pressure.” 

“Kind of hard to do when the only thing to sit on is the floor,” Craig deadpans. 

“I can get you some books, I’ll do that after I wrap it. Uh, can you hold this here for a minute?” Craig takes hold of the cold pack, pressing it gently into his skin. Tweek turns back to his pile of things and pulls out a roll of gauze. “This isn’t _exactly_ what you need, but it’s a good place holder for the time being.” 

The cold pack is suddenly taken from Craig, and the loss of it is noticed immediately as his knee begins to throb again. Tweek unrolls the gauze and looks apologetically at Craig. “This isn’t going to feel good, so just prepare yourself.” 

He starts wrapping it from behind his knee, going up and over and gradually getting tighter and tighter. Craig hisses and moans at the unbelievable discomfort this whole process is putting him in. Tweek tries his best to be gentle though, and when he’s done wrapping and finishes bandaging, he places a soft hand on Craig’s knee. 

“I’m… sorry that I did this to you, by the way.” His eyes meet Craig’s, and there’s something so _intimately soft_ about his expression. An unwarranted feeling of fondness worms it’s way into Craig’s chest and he tries his best to suppress it. “I should have been more careful.” 

“Yeah… uh, thanks. I guess,” the noirette replies nonchalantly. “You’re still a delusional asshole, though.” Unexpectedly, Tweek smiles. 

“And you’re still insufferable,” he replies before standing up. “I guess I should go find some books for you to rest your leg on.” The blonde then begins his journey around the bunker in search for books. 

“Hey, Tweek,” Clyde suddenly speaks up, “have you heard from Kenny at all?” 

“Oh my God!” Tweek whips around, immediately reaching into his pocket for his phone. “I haven’t even checked, oh Jesus!” As he checks his phone, his jaw drops in horror. Everyone’s eyes are on the twitchy boy as he runs a frightened hand through his tangled hair. “Oh my God.” 

Craig’s brows furrow. “Tweek, what is it?” 

The blonde walks back over to Craig, phone held out in front of him. “See for yourself.” Confused, Craig takes the phone from Tweek and sees what has Tweek so frightened. 

_We made it outside! :D So far so good. We’re going to Stan’s house first._ The first message sent from Kenny. A few minutes later he updated again. _This is creepy, it’s a fucking ghost town out here._

  
The next update came a little while after. _Dude, don’t let anyone leave the bunker. We were right._ There was an image attached that kept Craig frozen in place. It was a poor quality photo, but Craig knew what it was almost immediately, he would recognize those rings from anywhere. Maybe Tweek wasn’t so full of shit after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From Cas: Thanks for reading! I hope you're enjoying this story so far <3 Also thanks to everyone who's been leaving comments!! They are super appreciated ;u;


	5. Not All Dogs go to Heaven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things get worse

The sun was out, the day was bright, and the weather was exceptionally good, which was such a shame because it seemed no one but Stan, Kyle, and Kenny could really experience it. The weather didn’t uphold the mood, because if it had, the skies would be overcast and hail the size of bricks would be pouring down among them. But no, the sky was beautiful and the temperatures were perfect. At least they could get a good look around.

Once the three boys had climbed up the stairs and left the bunker, they left the poorly taken care of house and got a good breath of fresh air. Although Kenny had been used to musty and unclean air thanks to his orange parka, the other two hadn’t and really took advantage of that moment. 

“Okay, so we get to go now, right?” Stan asked, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly, almost as if he didn’t want to bring it up.

Kenny glanced back at him and raised an eyebrow, shaking his head no. “What are you talking about? Look man, we are going to explore, look around for a little bit, see if your family is home and safe, then come back to the bunker. Like planned.”

Stan gave a thumbs up before looking both ways and glancing inside of Tweek’s house before nodding and giving a wink. “Oh, of coooooooourse, we are totally going to come back, like planned!” As he said this, Stan shook his head no and crossed his arms to make an ‘X’. 

“Dude, no, I’m serious about this, we ARE coming back to the bunker once we’ve found out what we needed to learn.” Kenny narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms, showing no indication of change.

It didn’t quite get through Stan’s thick skull. “Yes, you’re saying what I’m saying, we ARE going back to the bunker!” Another wink.

“No, stop doing that, no wink, I’m actually really serious about this guys!”

Before another miscommunication could happen on Stan’s part, Kyle stepped in, not very amused by this whole situation. “God dammit, why the hell not? Tweek is a psychopath! He somehow hypnotized you into believing him or some bullshit to get you to trick us so he’d have more hostages for his convoluted plans!”

Kenny grit his teeth before calming himself down, knowing that getting angry would only help Kyle’s point. Kyle could work well when upset and under pressure, Kenny couldn’t, and when lives were on the line he couldn’t give his friend an ounce of leverage.

“Calm down Kyle… okay I know you’re scared—“

“I’m not fucking scared, I just don’t want to be fucking kidnapped by some tweaked out psychopath preaching alien bull crap!”

The blond had to stop for a moment to choose his words wisely. Wrong words would make him lose his friends. “Okay, so you’re not scared. But Tweek definitely is, and for the past few days he’s been spending all of this time and effort into helping you guys. So whether you believe him or not, can’t you just… humor me? If you think nothing is really going on and we don’t find anything… I’ll let you guys go. What’s the worst that could happen, we’re already all absent anyways.”

Kyle’s demeanor seemed to soften up a bit as he slowly began to think over Kenny’s offer. “I… okay, fine, you have one hour to prove that we are in a crisis, but if I go home and turn in the TV and everything is fine, like it should be, then I’m not coming back. “ He warned, dead serious.

“Yeah man, I love you and all, but like, I don’t want to waste my day, and I’ve already been disappointed by not getting to see that really cool stuff you promised us.” Stan added, though he didn’t seem as emotional as the other two with his slight argument.

Kenny let out a sigh of relief, now knowing that there was at least a chance of all of them surviving together. “Alrighty then, it seems like everything is in order! Let’s pop by my place so I can find Karen and then we can go to your guys’.” He said, turning in the direction of his house and starting to walk.

“Whoa whoa whoa there Kenny.” Kyle stopped him, putting a gentle hand on his shoulder. “If what you’re saying is real… is real, then I want to go get Ike. His middle school is close to here so I think we should get there first.” He said, trying not to sound rude. “Look, I love Karen, but my brother is more important to me then my own life.”

“Hey yeah! And if we’re going on rescue missions, I would really like to go and get Sparky! He’s just in my backyard.”

“Stan, don’t you have a sister?”

“... so can we go get Sparky first?”

The blond boy bit his bottom lip and thought about each option, knowing that as the unannounced leader of the group he would be responsible for any and all losses, if they so came. If it was purely his choice he’d just go get Karen and then Ike and then Sparky, feeling more attachment to his own sister than Ike and Sparky. He would say Kevin too, but he had moved away a few months ago. Kenny also knew that everyone’s lists of importance were different to them. Kyle’s probably went something like Ike, Karen, and then Sparky, whereas Stan’s probably went Sparky, Ike, Karen. 

“I have a solution. Who is closest? The closer we are the easier we can make it back, the higher chance of survival for all three and then four of us. Then we’d get the next closest, then the last. Then we’d go inside and find where Tricia is. Tricia and Stripe.” Kenny said, thinking he had come up with a rather good idea. Although that begged the question, would there be enough room in the bunker…? They’d get to that eventually, after everyone is safe.

The three of them momentarily pause to remember where exactly they are and map out in their minds, and how far away their loved ones were. Kenny knew his sister was the furthest away, living in the bad part of town thanks to a quick cold she had caught. Eventually, Kyle spoke up.

“Ike is just three blocks away from this very spot! Ha! Let’s go get h—“

“Ha! Sparky is only two blocks away from here! We live right next to each other, how could you not realize!” Stan laughed to himself, but was rather happy that he got to keep his dog safe.

The look on Kyle’s face utterly dropped as he realized that he couldn’t find his brother first, but knew they had all silently agreed to Kenny’s rules. “Okay, so it seems we’re going to Stan’s house then, everyone ready?” He asked. “Yep!” Stan grinned, and Kyle begrudgingly nodded. 

And with that, Kenny sent the first text to Tweek, telling him that they were outside and everything was good. They set off on their way, starting to walk to Stan’s house while making small talk amongst themselves. Kenny didn’t like how loud they were being with all of this dead silence, but at the same time it was slightly comforting to know that they were safe for now. His friends were safe. 

Soon the three of them had arrived at yet another poorly kept house, but this time the wear and tear wasn’t from time, but rather Randy, who kept showing up at their house and demanding to see them. After a year or two on the farm, his parents got divorced and because of Randy’s criminal record, plus the fact that Stan simply didn’t want to live with his dad at all, Stan’s mom got full custody. Thank god too.

Stan ran up to his own home and knocked on the door three times before going inside. The blond just shrugged it off and followed Kyle into the blue and green house. Kenny had always liked it here, or anywhere that wasn’t his own home, so when he walked in he felt the familiarity of his childhood. He smiled to himself. It was nice.

“Okay guys, he should be outside!” Stan called, walking through his own kitchen and grabbing the things he wanted Sparky to have, which was mostly treats. 

They walked through the house just to leave again into the backyard. It was muddy and hard to walk on without getting your shoes soaked, thanks to a broken hose and recent rain, but the focus of the yard was a typical red dog house. “Sparky!” Stan called, and almost immediately the big hound mix came bounding out.

Sparky had gotten huge over the years, even if he was almost ten years old. He was still full of energy and had that same spring in his step sense when he was a puppy. The big dog barked and yipped with excitement when he heard Stan’s voice, almost knocking the black haired boy to the muddy ground. “Who's a good boy, is it you, is it you? Yes it’s you!” Stan laughed, feeding his beloved dog a treat. 

After a minute of getting Sparky to calm down, they put the leash on his collar and left the house, Stan still giving him the occasional treat. “Look guys, we don’t have to go back to the bunker to drop him off yet, Ike is probably just a block away and Sparky could use the walk.” He chirped, in a much better mood thanks to his dog. Even Kyle didn’t seem to mind that his brother got momentarily put on the back burner for the hound, even petting him! 

But it couldn’t all be hunky dory. Before the middle school was in sight, the formally still ground had started to move yet again. Correction, it had started to vibrate again, pebbles and small rocks moving around as if on their own. Sparky began to growl, the old dog focused on something they couldn’t fully sense yet.

“Sparky? What’s wrong boy, you see a cat?” Stan asked, looking around to see what was making his dog so upset. That’s when the pieces all clicked together for Kenny, as he realized what exactly was going on. 

“Move.” Kenny warned, feeling his heart stop in his chest.

“What? Kenny, we’re already walking, what are you—“

“I said MOVE, HIDE, GET INSIDE NOW NOW NOW!!”

The panic in his voice made the other two believe in his intentions, as they looked briefly around for a place to hide. “Guys, over here, someone’s porch has a gap under it! I think we can all fit!” Kyle called, pointing to a rather big house that did indeed have a porch and a supposed hiding spot.

Kenny ran and easily slid under, getting his orange clothes all muddy. Kyle did the same, muttering something about how gross and germy it was down there. Stan was where they had a problem. Well, not necessarily Stan, but Sparky. The black haired boy was able to wedge himself under next to the others, but it was clear such a big dog wouldn’t fit.

“Stan, let him go!” Kyle hissed, feeling the danger in the air.

“N-no, I can’t, if this thing really is dangerous, then, then—“

“Dude, you need to let go or you’ll be killing all three of us! Who’s more important, your dog or us and your own well being?” The redhead shot back, his voice shaking as the vibrations on the ground got harder.

“I— I— fine!” Stan let go of Sparky’s leash, and the dog walked away, still growling at… something.

That’s when it happened. A long tall shadow loomed over the three, darkening the whole road. Kenny felt dizzy, his stomach was doing flips as goosebumps covered his skin. ‘This is what Tweek was talking about’, he thought, ‘this is what will end the world.’ The air started to hum loudly the closer the creature got, making the space around him feel pressurized. He felt his brain rattle against his skull, giving him a splitting headache.

There it was. The creature. He could barely see the bottom of it, but Kenny recognized that it… it had no feet. Not only that but it was floating as well! Snow white feathers and a frightening aura were the only thing in his view, covering up whatever was underneath. Was this what Craig had seen…? Kenny needed to get a better look, get a picture, get proof!

Slowly he crawled forward, pulling out his beat up and busted phone, opening up the camera and pointing it upwards so he could see what exactly this thing was. Only the phone and his hand were out from under their hiding spot, giving his camera just enough angle to see the creature. He snapped the picture before pulling himself back, as not to reveal where they were hiding. 

The three of them silently looked at the blurry photo, eyes wide. The creature, the evil being who was believed to wipe out most of the human population so far looked… godly. Despite its horrible appearance, the thing looked almost comforting, and Kenny found himself actively trying not to poke his head out and see the thing without the interference of a camera.

It had a tall and admittedly thin body for how long it was, covered from head to toe in strong, stalk wings. It’s wings were… beautiful to say anything else… they were huge and perfectly clean, with no stains or red splotches as Kenny had predicted, with all of this bloodshed. From what he could tell in the picture, it had at least eight wings, leaving no part of it’s actual body uncovered. But the most interesting part about it was it’s head. Or could you even say it was a head? Why? Because it wasn’t connected to the rest of the body.

Four black rings, one horizontal, one vertical, one diagonal right, one diagonal left, all rings circling an invisible center. All rings, covered in eyes, leaving barely enough space to see what the colors of the rings were. If it hadn’t looked so godly, Kenny would have pissed his pants.

Quickly, his shaky fingers sent a text to Tweek, attaching the picture to the message and pressing send. “K-Kenny…!” Kyle whisper-yelled, grabbing his shoulder as Kenny tried desperately to send a readable message, which was hard with all of this shaking. “Not now Kyle…!”

“Dude, no, be quiet you guys!” Stan hissed at the both of them, putting a finger to his lips and signaling that they had to keep it down, for the greater good. “That thing is going to notice us if you don’t quiet down…!”

Finally, Kenny sent his message, letting out a soft sigh as he pocketed his phone. But it made him realize, why hadn’t the ground stopped shaking, shouldn’t the creature have moved on…? And that’s when he realized, just exactly why it hadn’t moved on yet.

The creature had approached Sparky, and… what? The dog had momentarily stopped growling and barking for a moment. But why? Kenny couldn’t quite see, but the creature had seemed to lean over and… maybe was petting him? Was that horrifying and godly thing petting a dog on the street? What the hell!

Soon, it bent back up and turned, moving on as it moved down the street, eventually turning a corner and disappearing out of sight. Once the ground stopped shaking, the three boys pulled themselves out from underneath the porch, not even bothering to try and clean themselves up. Everyone just stood there, completely in awe about what the hell had just happened.

Clearly, that was the thing Tweek had talked about, it was the thing he had predicted and the thing that wiped out Poland. But it had left Sparky alone. Why? “Dude, what the hell, we need to leave, like, now.” Kyle finally gasped out, visibly shaking as he tried to get himself together, failing horribly. No one knew what that was, and no one could know.

“Yeah… let’s go back to the bunker…” Stan breathed out, calling over Sparky and taking a hold of his leash.

Sparky happily yapped, his tongue lolling out of his mouth as his master held his leash. The big dog wasn’t actually harmed in any way, shape, or form, besides from getting himself pet by a strange alien creature. The three didn’t say anything on the way back, becoming extremely quiet as they walked. Whether it was because they now knew the threat was real, or because they were trying to keep an eye out for anything that showed the ground was moving again.

What was that thing…? From the lore that Kenny had read, it didn’t actually look or act like any monster or cryptid he knew. Perhaps Tweek’s original theory of aliens was correct, but it also didn’t look like anything people had reported before. Even aliens had something that made them, well, look like them, and that was usually defined as human-like and almost always had grey skin. But that thing didn’t have skin from what he could tell, and was covered in wings and feathers and eyes. But he had to admit, the way it held itself did look kind of human. So what could it possibly be…?

“Why… why didn’t you let us pick up Ike?” Kyle spoke up, breaking the long and tiring silence. “My… my brother might have gotten picked up by one of those things, he might be dead and you wanted to get your damned dog?!”

Stan looked down at the ground, clearly feeling guilty now that he knew the threat was real. “K-Kyle, look, I didn’t know, you didn’t know, how could we have…? We agreed on getting whoever was closest…”

Kyle just narrowed his eyes at his childhood friend, clenching his fists. Whether it was in grief or anger, no one really knew. “You asshole, we could of—“

“Kyle, stop! You didn’t take this seriously, so you were comfortable letting Stan get his dog first! Besides, we ran into that thing halfway to Ike’s middle school, we wouldn’t have made it anyways!” Kenny hissed, not about to let Kyle fly off of the handle. “Ike is not dead! If anything the school is on lockdown and if not its not even time for any students to be out!”

The redhead grit his teeth and huffed, clearly just biting his tongue for his friends, not because he wasn’t totally provoked. “Hey Ky, we’ll just regroup at the bunker, and then go get him okay…?”

“... okay.”

The rest of the walk was awkward to say the least, the three of them boiling in their own emotions and fear. Kenny, who already knew the threat was real, struggled with the idea that he caused Ike to possibly lose his safety and that Karen was alone at home. Stan was still in partial shock from seeing that godly alien creature was real and didn’t harm his dog. Kyle was just angry and upset about everything. 

Soon they were coming up to where Tweek’s house should be, following Kenny’s lead sense he knew the way better. But things weren’t so quiet for long as Sparky began to growl again, the warning sign throwing Stan off. Sparky wasn’t a growler, he growled at people who were on drugs and people who were drunk, besides Stan of course. And even that was because dogs are sensitive and can tell when someone has poison on their breath. So when he started to growl for the second time today, Stan raised a brow.

“Guys…? Maybe not the best time, but I think—“

“Shh, Stan, shut up.” Kyle suddenly hissed, putting a hand over his mouth.

“But I have an idea—“

“I said shut it! The ground is doing the thing again…”

Sure enough, small pebbles were shaking, and the sound of humming could be heard in the distance if you held your breath. Stan pulled Kyle’s gloved hand off of his face and huffed, looking in the other’s direction as he shook his head. “That’s what I was about to say, you didn’t have to interrupt me…” He muttered, rolling his eyes.

“Um guys, isn’t Tweek’s house in that direction…?” Kenny said softly, pointing towards the direction of the noise. The look on their faces fell and all of a sudden safety was top priority. The three of them bolted down the street, staying along the sidewalk so they could duck into bushes if they needed too. Sparky ran alongside them, still growling loudly.

And then they reached Tweek’s house.

And three of those creatures, the monsters, the aliens, circled around the outside of the house, all eyes that could be looking in through the windows, chattering among themselves in speech that they couldn’t understand from this far away. They slowly backed away from the open, slowly coming back close to one of the neighboring buildings. 

Kenny pulled out his phone, took a picture, and sent a message to Tweek.

We are so fucked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes from Themo: woop woop, chapter five! Nice! A life saving tip for the day, lighting stops your heart so the best thing to do in a storm is get low and curl up.

**Author's Note:**

> Notes from Themo/Wormwood: Thanks for reading up to this point! And for all the future death that may come, have a little fact that could save a life! Drowning is silent, if you see someone drowning it will look like they are bobbing up and down until they simply don’t come back up. The brain will be so focused on oxygen that when they comes back up, they won’t scream, but will rather gasp for air. Keep this in mind with children and people who can’t swim at all or very well!


End file.
